Geo-redundant and high reliability commercial mobile alert system (CMAS)

• US 8,954,028 B2
• Filed: 10/28/2008
• Issued: 02/10/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 09/25/2008
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: TeleCommunication Systems Inc (Comtech Telecommunications Corporation)
• Original Assignee: TeleCommunication Systems Inc (Comtech Telecommunications Corporation)
• Inventors: Titus, Mark, Yang, Fei
• Primary Examiner(s): Shen, Qun
• Application Number:
  US12/289,422
• Publication Number:
  US 20100075626A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,296 Days
• Field of Search: 455/404.1, 455/412.2, 455/453, 455/466, 340/870.11, 709/249
• US Class Current: 455/404.1
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 24/04 Arrangements for maintaining operational condition
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/06 Selective distribution of broadcast services, e.g. multimedia broadcast multicast service [MBMS]; Services to user groups; One-way selective calling services
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/90 Services for handling of emergency or hazardous situations, e.g. earthquake and tsunami warning systems [ETWS]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 76/50 for emergency connections

Abstract

A Commercial Mobile Alert System (CMAS) providing redundant cell broadcast centers (CBC). Multiple CBCs are interfaced to any given base station controller (BSC) or radio network controller (RNC) to provide geo-redundancy and high availability so that the failure of one CBC or a cluster of CBCs at one site will not cause service interruption for the area controlled by the associated BSC or RNC or for the entire service area in the public land mobile network (PLMN) network. The BSC or RNC interfaces to multiple CBCs at multiple sites without changes to the otherwise conventionally existing BSC/RNC, 3GPP 23.041 standard architecture.

Claims

1. In a commercial mobile alert system (CMAS), geo-redundancy provided by:

at least one base station controller; and

a cell broadcast center (CBC) server farm comprised of a plurality of cell broadcast center servers, interfaced to said at least one base station controller, to redundantly service a single given geographic area; and

a database cluster to commonly share cell site health information with said CBC server farm;

wherein each of said plurality of cell broadcast center servers is provided a different range of message serial numbers allocated to ensure uniqueness of message sequence numbering when multiple cell broadcast center servers are simultaneously active.

2. In a commercial mobile alert system (CMAS), geo-redundancy provided according to claim 1, wherein:

one of said plurality of cell broadcast centers (CBCs) is operated in an active mode, while another one of said plurality of cell broadcast centers is operated in a standby mode.

3. In a commercial mobile alert system (CMAS), geo-redundancy provided according to claim 1, wherein:

at least two of said plurality of cell broadcast centers (CBCs) are each operated in an active mode.

4. A commercial mobile alert system (CMAS), comprising:

a cell broadcast entity to handle an emergency alert message to be transmitted via a cell broadcast center;

a cell broadcast center (CBC) server farm, comprising a plurality of CBC servers, to accept said emergency alert message from said cell broadcast entity and to redundantly service a single given geographic area;

at least one base station controller (BSC), in communication with said plurality of CBC servers, to receive said emergency alert message from only one of said plurality of CBC servers and

a database cluster to commonly share cell site health information with said CBC server farm;

wherein each of said plurality of CBC servers is provided a different range of message serial numbers allocated to ensure uniqueness of message sequence numbering when multiple CBC servers are simultaneously active.

5. A commercial mobile alert system (CMAS), comprising:

a cell broadcast entity to handle an emergency alert message to be transmitted via a cell broadcast center;

a cell broadcast center (CBC) server farm, comprising a plurality of CBC servers, to accept said emergency alert message from said cell broadcast entity and to redundantly service a single given geographic area;

at least one radio network controller (RNC), in communication with said plurality of CBC servers, to receive said emergency alert message from only one of said plurality of CBC servers; and

a database cluster to commonly share cell site health information with said CBC server farm;

wherein each of said plurality of CBC servers is provided a different range of message serial numbers allocated to ensure uniqueness of message sequence numbering when multiple CBC servers are simultaneously active.